Teens charged with spray-painting cats

HONEA PATH - Police have arrested one teen and are looking for another who investigators say spray-painted two cats and then tried to set them on fire last month.

Honea Path resident Timothy Jordan McLaughlin, 17, was arrested Thursday and charged with two counts of cruelty to animals, according to arrests warrants released Monday.

McLaughlin also faces charges of malicious injury to personal property, illegal graffiti and vandalism, interference with traffic-control devices, grand larceny and damaging or tampering with a vehicle. He had three outstanding bench warrants in other cases.

He was being held Monday night at the Anderson County Detention Center with bail set at $10,000, a jail spokeswoman said.

Honea Path police Chief David King said his department also has issued a warrant for Christopher Martinez, who is described as a white male between 17 and 19 years of age. He is wanted on charges that included cruelty to animals, malicious mischief and defacing a stop sign, according to a police report.

McLaughlin and Martinez are accused of spraying red paint on the tails of two cats named Tiger and Butterball and then attempting to set them on fire at 300 Sirrine St. on Sept. 26. Each of the cats had singed fur, according to a police report.

Police say McLaughlin and Martinez also spray-painted the front yard at the same address, as well as a nearby stop sign at Sirrine Street and Chiquola Avenue.

A 15-year-old also was detained in connection with the spray-painting incidents. She told police that McLaughlin was the person who spray-painted the cats and stop sign, according to the police report.

Before being turned over to her father, the juvenile told police where to find a can of spray paint at 302 Sirrine Ave., according to the report.

The day after the spray-painting occurred, a woman living at 300 Sirrine Ave. was able to pick out Martinez from a photo lineup, the police report said.